The Long Island man who on Halloween unearthed skeletal remains he believes are those of his missing father in his parents' basement has revealed that a psychic led him to the knot of twisted bones.

George Carroll, a Korean War veteran, vanished without a trace in 1961 - six years after moving into the house on Olive Street in Lake Grove with his wife and four children.

Mike Carroll, now aged 57, says his mother, Dorothy, provided vague details about how his father just left one day 'to do something' and never returned.

Mike Carroll is pictured standing on the porch of his parents' old home, where on Wednesday he discovered skeletal remains he believe are his missing father's

Mr Carroll, now 57, says he used the services of a psychic to locate the skeletal remains in the basement of his family's Lake Grove home

Carroll and his two grown sons found remains in the basement of this Lake Grove, New York, home on Halloween

Suffolk County police department locked down the scene as they examined the remains, they said there was no record of George Carroll ever being reported missing

A grisly family rumor suggested the father was buried in the basement of the residence where his wife went on living until the 1990s.

'In my mind, I always thought that I was going to find that,' Mike said Wednesday. I'm glad this is over and I don't have to break up my house anymore.'

Mr Carroll began excavating the basement of the house three or four years ago but had to abandon the process when it became too dangerous.

But the process resumed recently after better technology was employed to scan deep into the earth beneath the property.

Speaking to the New York Post, Carroll said that at one point, he invited a paranormal expert to the basement, where the man zeroed in on a certain spot and told him: 'the energy is here.'

Mike, assisted by his two sons, initially dug elsewhere in the cellar but this week returned to the spot pointed out by the psychic, leading to the grim discovery.

He said the bones were found 'twisted in a knot' and appearing 'weird' in a dirt hole several feet deep under the concrete floor.

Carroll, who works in the medical field, said he instantly recognized the remains as human.

George Carroll vanished when Michael, the youngest of the family, was just eight months old and his siblings were five, seven and nine. After their mother, Dorothy, died in 1998, the Carroll children inherited the home.